


Criminal Persuasion

by GeckoGirl89



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, Devotion, First Kiss, Getting Together, Home Invasion, Idiots in Love, M/M, Protective Steve McGarrett, Rage, Realization, Stalking, Threats of Violence, Violence, Worried Steve McGarrett
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-05-05
Packaged: 2018-10-28 08:16:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10827384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeckoGirl89/pseuds/GeckoGirl89
Summary: Danny had never seen Steve with so much out of control fury in his eyes before.





	Criminal Persuasion

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this post by earthdragon1 on tumblr: http://earthdragon1.tumblr.com/post/157869126788/do-you-know-what-i-need-i-need-for-an-incredibly
> 
> Set after 7.18 due to a minor spoiler, but it generally works for season 7. For the purposes of this story, Steve and Danny are single. The POV in the first section is Steve’s, then it switches over to Danny’s POV for the rest of the story.

Roman Hellier was an infuriatingly slippery criminal. Five-0 suspected him of leading a trafficking ring that led underage girls into prostitution and poor, desperate immigrants into slavery, but so far they had been unable to accumulate enough evidence to arrest him. They had been able to incarcerate lower level leaders of the operation, but they hadn’t been able to take down the suspected kingpin yet. None of the men they had arrested had been willing to testify against him, and every time he was in interrogation, Hellier would remain tight-lipped and leave with an evil smirk on his face that Steve wanted to punch right off.

Of course, he knew he couldn’t do that. They needed his eventual conviction to be clean, with no possibility that he might get off on a technicality due to police brutality. This guy had made way too many people suffer, and Steve wouldn’t let him get off because he lost his temper. But Steve had not expected Hellier to be so bold as to plant himself in one of Steve’s beach chairs while he was out for his morning swim.

His arms tensed, braced for a fight, as he got out of the ocean and saw Hellier making himself at home in his backyard. “What the fuck are you doing here?! You know that I could arrest you for trespassing right now.”

Hellier smiled in his typical vicious manner. “The better question is, how I managed to get into your backyard while you were unarmed.” He shook his head in mock disappointment. “You’re very predictable, Commander.”

Steve stalked toward the asshole, who laughed as if he was the one in control. Steve was even more pissed that the guy was getting inside his head, making him wonder how he had ended up violating the sanctity of his home like this. “As for arresting me, I don’t think you’ll want to do that. But that is typical of you, Commander, all bark and no bite. How about you sit down so we can have a chat, like gentlemen?”

Steve was not stupid enough to sit down. Hellier probably had a trained sniper ready to strike when he sat down. “How about you just tell me what you want or I call the police right now?”

Hellier shrugged. “Fine. Have it your way. He produced a document folder. "I think you should see these.”

Steve cautiously took the folder, wary of opening it in case it had anthrax or something in it. Hellier seemed to be reading his mind. “I promise that the contents of it are quite safe, Commander. I’m endeavoring to persuade you, not kill you. Open the envelope.”

Steve slowly opened the envelope, and his stomach sank when he saw a series of pictures. There were some of him and Danny, Danny alone, Danny with Grace and Charlie, Grace and Charlie by themselves, and Steve with all of them. The photos had been taken over the past year, some months before the investigation on Hellier had begun, and had been taken in public places, at Steve’s own house, at Danny’s house, and both Grace and Charlie’s schools. Steve wanted to throw up.

“Where the hell did you get these?” he asked, rifling through the photos. His voice couldn’t hide the fear he felt.

Hellier simply hummed instead of answering his question. “I am a man with many resources. They’re quite important to you, aren’t they?”

The bastard was smiling at Steve. Steve clenched his jaw, even more angry that Hellier had found out this particular truth about him so easily. “What kind of game are you playing?”

Hellier blinked with false innocence. “It’s not a game, more of a… _quid pro quo_ , shall we say. If Five-0 drops their investigation against me, Detective Williams and his children will remain safe. If not, well…” He trailed off, shrugging. “I can’t make any promises.”

That tiny smug quirk of Hellier’s lip and evil glint in his eye had Steve seeing red. No way was he going to let him get away with this bullshit.

* * *

Danny pulled up to Steve’s house earlier than he normally would when they went to work together. He shook his head at himself when he checked the time display on the radio in his car and saw how early it still was. Steve might not even be out of the ocean yet, and Danny didn’t know how he would explain his odd behavior to his friend. Danny had woken up early that morning with a chill running through his bones, the kind of feeling that someone more superstitious might attribute to a person walking over his grave. He had the inexplicable sense that something was deeply, terribly wrong and that it had something to do with Steve. Before he knew it, he had driven over to his partner’s house.

Danny decided to go ahead and greet his partner. Steve would likely reassure him that everything was fine, and then they would engage in their typical bickering that would make him feel more normal. Confident in his plan, Danny turned off the ignition in his car.

Danny’s heart immediately began to race as he heard what sounded like shouting from Steve’s backyard. He removed his gun from his holster, clicking off the safety and immediately making his way to Steve’s beach.

Danny froze when he saw the sight in front of him. Steve was on top of Roman Hellier, a criminal Five-0 had been investigating for some time, and choking him. He had a split lip and a bruise that would form into a black eye later, but he had clearly gained the upper hand in whatever fight the two had. Danny had never seen Steve with so much out of control fury in his eyes before. This wasn’t an interrogation technique Danny thought was crossing the line. Steve seemed like he wanted to kill Hellier and didn’t care about the consequences.

“No one goes after my family, you son of a bitch! Do you hear me, _no one_!”

Fuck, Steve sounded like he wanted to kill the guy too. Danny put the safety back on his gun and re-holstered it. He had to stop Steve from making a horrible, life-altering mistake.

Danny ran over to his partner. “Steve, stop it!”

Steve didn’t seem to hear him as he continued to yell at Hellier. “You’re gonna die for this!”

Danny pulled Steve’s arms away from Hellier’s neck, grunting with the effort, and tugged Steve backwards. Danny held on to Steve despite his partner’s frenzied attempts to escape. As he pulled him back, he briefly noticed some papers on the ground, but he couldn’t see what was on them.

“Listen to me, Steve, you don’t want to do this. Believe me, I know.” Danny was thinking of how he had killed Marco Reyes after Reyes had killed his little brother, Matty. He understood where Steve’s impulse to kill this guy had come from if he had threatened Steve’s sister and niece. But he also knew that killing Hellier would only hurt Steve at the end of the day.

Steve shook his head. “He’s evil, pure evil. Can’t let it happen. Can’t.”

There was a terror in Steve’s voice that Danny could detect underneath the cold fury, but he would focus on reassuring Steve once he was under more control. When they were several feet away from Hellier, Danny turned around and gently pushed Steve down to the sand.

He looked into Steve’s eyes sternly. “Sit there and don’t move.”

Steve blinked in surprise as if he hadn’t known that it was Danny who had pulled him away from Hellier. _Wow, that must have been one intense rage blackout._ Danny waited until Steve nodded before he turned his attention to Hellier, who was pathetically attempting to crawl away.

Danny drew out his gun, clicking off the safety and pointing at Hellier. “You’re not moving either. You’re under arrest for trespassing on private property. And I’m calling in backup to process this scene.” Danny used his other hand to take out his cell phone and used his speed dial to call Chin.

* * *

Several moments later, the rest of Five-0 had shown up, along with Duke, Pua, and Eric, who was processing the crime scene. Everyone else was dealing with the scene outside while Danny was in the kitchen watching his partner with a wary gaze. Steve hadn’t said anything since Danny stopped him, but he seemed to be slightly calmer now. He was holding a bag of ice to his injured eye and glaring at the kitchen table. Occasionally, his fists would clench as if he was still thinking about beating the crap out of Hellier.

Once Danny had called for backup, he had time to wonder about a couple of things. Hellier had rarely been outside the state of Hawaii and had never taken his criminal operations to the mainland, so Danny wasn’t even sure how he would have known of Mary and Joan’s existence. It seemed unlikely that he would have planned to go after them in Los Angeles. But they certainly made more sense as a target than Steve’s mother, his only other living relative. Most people outside of the CIA would assume that she was dead.

“Oh my God,” Eric exclaimed from outside. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”

Now Danny was even more confused. Eric had processed crime scenes where grisly murders had taken place without making a peep, and this was a home invasion. What the hell had he found that would give him that disgusted and shocked tone of voice?

A couple moments later, Duke entered the kitchen, trailed by Pua. He had a serious and worried expression on his face.

“I need to talk to you outside for a moment, Detective Williams. Pua will watch Commander McGarrett.”

“Yeah, okay, sure.” Danny stood up from the table and walked outside with Duke. He swore that he could feel Steve staring after him the entire time until they closed the door to Steve’s house.

Duke sighed and shuffled through some papers that he was handling with gloves. They were probably the same papers Danny had briefly noticed in his struggle to keep Steve from attacking Hellier. “You ought to take a look at these.”

Danny sucked in a gasp at the images he saw. It appeared that Hellier had been stalking Danny and his children. He was creeped out at the photos he saw that had not been taken in public places.

His nephew walked over to them. “That sicko was stalking you, Uncle D.”

Danny shook his head. “I know. I just… why?”

Nobody answered him, but Duke did give him a worried glance as he continued to move through the photos.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Danny whispered to himself.

Chin walked over to Duke, trailed by Kono and Lou. “So, we’ve booked Hellier on the trespassing and stalking charges. We should be able to ask him some questions once he’s well enough to talk.” Chin made a displeased face at that. Hellier would probably not be any more forthcoming than he had been in previous interrogations, and Steve’s attack might make their case against him more difficult in the future. But Danny was still kind of stuck on the fact that Hellier had been stalking him and on the frightening feeling that came from knowing he and his kids had been targeted by a very dangerous criminal.

Chin focused his attention on Danny, along with the rest of the team. Everyone was looking at him with sympathetic concern.

“How are you taking this, Danny?” Kono finally inquired.

Danny sighed. He still felt like he was trapped in a fog and unable to find clarity. “I don’t know. Really freaked out, I guess. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

“Yeah, nobody expected Hellier to pull a stunt like this,” Lou said.

“That too, but that’s not what I meant. I just… there was something Steve said when I found him. Something about Hellier going after his family, but if he was talking about me, then that would mean…”

Danny’s words stopped in his throat when they saw the reactions everyone else had to this news, or rather the lack of reactions to this non-newsworthy revelation. Kono and Chin exchanged knowing glances, Lou looked at him like he pitied him for being so dumb, Duke cleared his throat awkwardly, and Eric sighed like he was very, very tired.

“You really didn’t know, Uncle D?” Eric asked, sounding full of disbelief.

“What he said,” Lou chimed in.

“Ditto,” Kono echoed. Chin nodded his head in agreement. Suddenly, Danny felt as stupid as Lou’s expression had suggested he was. How could everyone else know that Steve apparently considered Danny and his children to be his family in that protective, instinctual way and Danny was only just now figuring it out?

“I, uh, I guess I should go talk to Steve then, huh?”

Kono raised an eyebrow. “I would say so.”

“I’ll, uh, I’ll go then.” He awkwardly waved towards the house behind him with his thumb before he turned around to re-enter the house.

Pua’s posture straightened when he noticed Danny entering the kitchen. “Hey! I tried to get him to talk, but he wasn’t really responding. He still seems to be really bothered by whatever happened this morning.” His expression turned apologetic. “Maybe you’ll have better luck.”

“Maybe.” Danny could only hope so.

Pua left the kitchen with a thoughtful frown on his face, and Danny took a seat next to Steve, who was staring blankly ahead at nothing.

Danny put a hand on Steve’s shoulder and opened his mouth to say something, but the words just wouldn’t come. And putting a hand on Steve’s shoulder didn’t feel like enough of a gesture, not this time. Danny turned his chair and wrapped his arms around Steve.

Steve lowered the bag of ice he had been holding to his eye and clung to Danny as if he was afraid he would die that very moment. “Danny.”

Danny released a weak, trembling laugh, glad that Steve was at least speaking now, though he still seemed shaken up. “You really freaked me out today, babe.”

Steve pulled out of the embrace and directed a glare at the table. “I know I shouldn’t have let him bait me like that, but when he said all that stuff, I just…” He scowled as if Hellier was right in front of him.

Danny licked his lips. “What did he say, exactly?”

“He pulled out those photos and then he said that you and Grace and Charlie would be safe if Five-0 quit investigating him. If not, he…” Steve paused to draw in a deep breath. “He said he ‘couldn’t make any promises’ regarding your safety.” Steve dropped his arms to the table with an ominous thud and buried his head in his hands.

Danny had suspected that Hellier had threatened his and his kids’ lives, but the confirmation from Steve’s own lips was frankly terrifying. He could see Steve’s shoulders trembling and hated the thought that he was crying because of this. Very few things could bring Steve to tears, and Danny hadn’t realized that this would be one of them.

“I just, even the thought of losing any of you,” he said, words muffled by his hands. “I can’t stand it.”

Danny sighed. “Same here.”

Steve dropped his hands, which bared his red, surprised eyes to Danny’s gaze. “Really?”

Danny narrowed his eyes, willing his dumbass partner to understand how much he cared about him. “Why do you think I gave you half my liver, you idiot?”

Steve chuckled and pulled Danny into an enthusiastic hug. “I really, really love you, Danno.”

Danny grinned as butterflies started to flutter around in his stomach. Hearing those words from Steve felt even better than usual, because this time there was no “buddy,” “pal,” or “bro” attached that dashed the hopes Danny had always assumed were foolish before this morning. After the nerve-wracking day they had, Danny let himself respond freely.

“I love you, too.” He huffed out a laugh, and his next words were light, but unmistakably hopeful. “If it weren’t for your busted lip, I’d probably kiss you right now.”

Steve pulled away slightly to look into Danny’s eyes and gave him a goofy grin. “I wouldn’t mind the busted lip thing.”

Danny leaned in to kiss Steve, keeping it brief and gentle due to the aforementioned busted lip issue. He pulled away a few seconds later and Steve’s eyes were still closed. He seemed pretty blissed out, and Danny felt similarly though they still had a lot to worry about.

“I know today started off bad, but we’re gonna get through this, I swear.” He didn’t know how, but Danny had to have faith that they would.

Steve opened his eyes and looked down at the table before he reached out for Danny’s hand. “I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

Danny had known Steve would protect him before today, but now he knew just how insane his protective instincts could get. About as insane as Danny’s, considering the fact that he came very close to killing the guy who had shot Steve on the plane. If several other people hadn’t been around at the time and if he hadn’t had the flash of what had happened because of Marco Reyes, Danny could have very easily gone over the edge.

Danny interlaced their fingers. “I’m not letting anything bad happen to you either.” Danny considered the dark days ahead for both of them and vowed to keep that promise no matter what.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted here: http://geckogirl89.tumblr.com/post/157924853175/criminal-persuasion


End file.
